A&S and Engineering Young Alumni Start-Up Opens the Door to Rapid App Creation

Less than two years after graduating from the University of Virginia, Vincent Ning and Michael Paris already have a year of experience at Microsoft under their belts and have just launched a start-up that’s been accepted into Y Combinator, one of the world’s hottest entrepreneurial accelerators.

While working together in Seattle, Ning and Paris got the idea for new software that would drastically reduce the amount of time it takes to develop web and mobile applications. Their company and app platform of the same name, Scaphold, simplifies the creation of the back-end data systems needed to build new apps.

“Our program allows users to create an entire back-end for an application in a matter of minutes – a process that could normally take up to several months,” Paris said.

Alumni Vincent Ning and Michael Paris have been accepted into the prestigious Y Combinator accelerator program for the spring of 2017. (Photo courtesy of Vincent Ning and Michael Paris)

Paris, who earned his degree in computer science from UVA’s School of Engineering and Applied Science, has been designing apps since he was a first-year student and began collaborating with Ning to build apps during their fourth years at UVA. Ning, who graduated with a degree in computer science and economics from the College of Arts & Sciences, had an eye toward the business side of app creation as well.

Their biggest project at UVA was a collaboration with several other students on an online platform called Nostrajamus. It was designed to facilitate music predictions, discovery and taste-making and was a finalist in the University’s annual Entrepreneurship Cup.